United States of America
The United States of America is a federal republic located in North America. It is the oldest federation in the world and the 7th largest superpower in the BSCN Universe. History Almost a century after the first Europeans landed in what would eventually be the state of Florida, a second attempt at a colony by the British succeeded in what would become Virginia. This colony would prove to be the heart of the new nation that would rise from its small beginnings in 1607. Throughout that century, settlers looking for a better life in a new land would take what could be a dangerous journey across the Atlantic Ocean to settle in the primary colonies of Virginia and Plymouth/Massachusetts Bay. By the middle of the 1700's the British had established thirteen colonies from Massachusetts to Georgia. The government in England had exploited the land east of the Appalachian Mountains to the benefit of its upper class, but had begun to tax its subjects in the colonies for goods they received from around the world. This gave rise to a rebellion among the colonists that at times amounted to a civil war with much of the upper class being loyalists. In 1776, after already enduring war for over a year, a congress of the colonies gathered in Philadelphia declared their independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. A bloody war continued until 1781, with the concession of defeat by the British. General George Washington of the Continental army became the first president in 1789, serving two terms for a total of just short of eight years. In those first years, two "parties" arose - one wanting a strong central government over the individual states, and the other wishing for stronger governments in the states themselves. The Constitution of 1787 had laid out the powers of the central government, the seat of which moved to a federal district named "District of Columbia" in 1800. A town in that district, named Washington, became the home of the government. The town grew to include the whole district. The United States would become a world power of unprecedented success beginning with intervention in China and the western Pacific Ocean in the mid 1890's. Two World Wars in the twentieth century would add to that prominence even as a second world "superpower" would arise out of the Russian Empire that spanned the Eurasian super continent. By the bicentennial celebrations of the declaration of independence, the United States would be a member of political alliances in Europe (NATO) and Oceania (ANZUS), among others. There have been two times in U.S. history in which the government was controlled by another nation, first by the Order Empire in 2014 and the Federation/Millennium from 2014 to March 2015. Geography TBA Economy TBA Government The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation. It is a constitutional republic and representative democracy, "in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law". The government is regulated by a system of checks and balances defined by the U.S. Constitution, which serves as the country's supreme legal document. In the American federalist system, citizens are usually subject to three levels of government: federal, state, and local. The local government's duties are commonly split between county and municipal governments. In almost all cases, executive and legislative officials are elected by a plurality vote of citizens by district. There is no proportional representation at the federal level, and it is rare at lower levels. The federal government is composed of three branches: *Executive - The President of the United States and his/her cabinet. *Legislative - The two houses of Congress: the Senate and the House of Representatives. *Judicial - The Supreme Court and lower federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the President with approval from the Senate. Political Relationships Alliances *France (since 1778) *United Kingdom (since 1783) *Confederacy of Independent States (since 1789) *Mexico (since 1822) *Republic of Ireland (since 1924) *Canada (since 1926) *Australia (since 1940) *Israel (since 1949) *Republic of Korea/South Korea (since 1949) *United Republic of Ulysses (since 2002) *Advanced Fleet of Hybrids (since 2013) *Aneph (since 2013) *Empire of Kevin (since 2014) *Unified Ceres Government (since 2014) *New Arcadian Republic (since 2014) *United Federation of Planets (since 2014) *New Batesian Republic (since 2015) *Republic of Japan (since 2015) Enemies *Democratic People's Republic of Korea/North Korea (1951 to 2015; merged into the Millennium) *State of Palestine (since 1988) *Millennium/Federation of the Western Hemisphere (since 2013) *Prometheus Corporation (since 2014) *New Republic of the Pacific/Imperial Rebel Front (since 2014) *Sviatoslav Republic (since 2015) *People's Republic of China (since 2015) *Scarlet Empire (since 2015) *Republic of Dragonfire (since 2015) *Sith Empire (since 2015) *People's Charismatic Cattirian Union (since 2015) *Chile (since 2016) States and Territories States Territories Earth Colonies Trivia *In RP, the United States has seven more states in the Union than the 50 IRL. These include: **Puerto Rico (51st) **American Samoa (52nd) **Guam (53rd) **Northern Mariana Islands (54th) **Superior (55th) **U.S. Virgin Islands (56th) ***Superior is the upper part of Michigan (the part that is connected to Wisconsin), which was admitted as the 55th State to join the Union. ***Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands were to be part of a single state, as they are part of the same island chain, but became their own separate states. *In RP, New Los Angeles is the largest city in the nation rather than New York City, as it was nuked in 2013, causing the size of the city to slightly decrease when reconstruction was complete. *Currently, the United States is a member of three major international alliances: the Sol System Alliance, NATO, and the Coalition of Allied States. Category:Nations